Morgan Rielly left the game against the Montreal Canadiens with no real indication as to what happened, as injuries continue to pile up for the Maple Leafs.
Toronto came into Saturday's must-win game against the Canadiens with the goal of getting off to a hot start and putting their most bitter rivals in a hole early. Instead, they fell down 2-0 thanks to two Alex Newhook goals and a fantastic performance by Jacob Fowler.
Morgan Rielly leaves game vs. Canadiens with lower-body injury
They also lost a key part of both their offense and defense as the team saw Morgan Rielly leave for the dressing room after his most recent shift of the game, and it was unknown as to what caused the issue. He played only 5:45 for the night:
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it was later revealed that Rielly would not return to the game, and the issue was something regarding the lower-body but no specifics have been given:
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The injury reportedly happened during Montreal's 3-on-1 opportunity early in the second period:
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Rielly has been notoriously durable for the Maple Leafs since he came into the league, and has only missed 21 games over the past seven seasons.
Rielly's injury comes at the worst possible time for Toronto
This season has been a much better one overall for Rielly too, as his offense is getting on track and his defense has genuinely gotten better.
He has 12 assists in 17 games, but no goals and is an even plus/minus of zero while being one of the clear locker room leaders for the Maple Leafs. His injury is a rough bit of news for him especially after last season's struggles, and he was looking to finally get back to his old form.
With a back-to-back and a heavy schedule ahead of them, the last thing the Maple Leafs need is Rielly to go down, and it adds another issue that they have to figure out soon with a potential call-up. Though a lot of their offensive defenders are injured such as Nick Blankenburg and William Villeneuve.
Hopefully this is nothing serious for Rielly and whatever issues were keeping him out of this game don't do so for any longer than that.
More to come.
Is Morgan Rielly going to miss extended time for the Maple Leafs?
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